Augmented Reality images have become popular in recent times. They essentially consist of images taken by a camera, which have been “augmented” by the addition of visible features, such as objects taken from the file or a database, or invisible features, such as metadata relating to the image, e.g., GPS data.
The Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.orgiwiki/Augmented_reality) defines “Augmented Reality” as follows:                “Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer.        In the case of Augmented Reality, the augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable. Artificial information about the environment and the objects in it can be stored and retrieved as an information layer on top of the real world view.”        
AR viewers are available for different camera devices. An example of such a viewer that can be used on an iPhone is that released by Intelligent Gadgets (http://intelligentgadgets.us/arViewer/arViewer.html). Although AR viewers have been developed, their use requires adopting solutions based on markers, which require placement of a predefined marker or coded object in the environment. This kind of viewers limits the use of AR to such predefined objects. The abovementioned iPhone application does not enable real image analysis, but rather is based on a point of view and GPS location and, therefore, it cannot be used in situations in which no marker is provided.
The prior art does not provide for an application suitable to transfer a Rich Media Message (RMM) that has a reference to a specific physical object using AR data, which contains the reference image (I0). The usage of related information regarding the image, compass data and accelerometer allows the application to operate in low light and low stability conditions both at the sending and at the receiving end.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an efficient and more generally applicable method and system by which a user generates a 3-D augmented reality feature containing a rich media message that is linked to a physical object.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improver AR image that can be transferred with or without an attached message.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a simple and efficient method to view augmented reality messages that are linked to a physical object.
It is a further object to provide a method and system that can operate in a variety of conditions, such as marker-less physical object, fast movement of the camera and various light conditions typical to handheld device usage.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a method for generating and viewing 3-D augmented images that can be implemented using the limited computing resources of handheld devices, such as cellular phones.
Other purposes and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.